South African SDG Hub

#SDGAction42464

Description

Intro

The South African SDG Hub was launched about two years ago by South Africa's Minister in the Presidency, Jeff Radebe. We support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by enabling access to relevant, useful and reliable knowledge resources, providing policy advice, promoting dialogue and building capacity. 
 
We build active partnerships with all actors in academia, government, the private sector and civil society interested in sharing their expertise or resources towards implementing the SDGs. 
 
Our users are leaders in government, the private sector and civil society

Objective of the practice

The South African SDG Hubâ€™s primary goal is to impact positively on the implementation of the SDGs by linking policy makers with SDG-relevant evidence, especially peer-reviewed research. 
 
We seek to reach this goal by means of four work streams: 
 
1. Knowledge sharing 
Relevant, useful and reliable knowledge is shared by means of an open access platform with SDG-relevant peer-reviewed research, innovations, reports and news 
 
2. Policy advice 
The Hub seeks to impact positively on SDG-relevant policy making by producing policy briefs and by connecting government partners with researchers and/or research centres of excellence. 
 
3. Dialogue promotion 
Regular roundtables are aimed at promoting dialogue between academic disciplines, sectors and line ministries on SDG-relevant themes. 
 
4. Capacity building 
The Hub seeks to contribute to building capacity to implement the SDGs by means of short courses and by supporting dedicated degree programs.

Partners

We have built high-trust and high-level relationships with the South African government, notably the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, the Department of Environmental Affairs, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation and Statistics South Africa.

We have also established partnerships with the African Union, United Nations Development Programme and development partners, notably Germany.

Results/Outputs/Impacts

We categorise our output in terms of each of our four work streams:

1. Knowledge sharing
We established an open access online repository, available at: www.SASDGHub.org. With an Artificial Intelligence grant from Microsoft, our team of developers is developing an Artificial Intelligence solution to improve the platform's search function.

2. Policy advice
We published South Africa's first major multi-stakeholder publication on the SDGs, available at: http://sasdghub.org/new-publication-implementing-the-sdgs-in-south-afri…. We also realised an impactful policy brief, available at http://sasdghub.org/features-of-effective-sdg-co-ordination-mechanisms-….

3.Dialogue promotion
In collaboration with the United Nations and the South African government we co-curate a monthly SDG Bulletin: https://us12.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=a531ef448f6b3979279e66c89&id=….

4. Capacity building
We host Africaâ€™s first interdisciplinary postgraduate degree on the SDGs. University World News provided a write-up of the programme here: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20180409134900175&…

Enabling factors and constraints

Enabling factors:
- Buy-in from the South African government
- Strategic direction from high-level advisory board
- Institutional support from the University of Pretoria â€“ provides access to world-class academics to conduct research and generate content.

Constraints:
Human capacity, mainly due to the insufficient funding.

Sustainability and replicability

The South African SDG Hub is currently particularly cost-effective. We have embarked on a fundraising campaign, as securing additional funds will enable its sustainability.

Conclusions

The South African SDG Hub is showing that there's a willingness amongst both policy makers and researchers to build partnerships to accelerate the realisation of the 2030 Agenda in Africa. We are the first initiative to build on this willingness to partner by developing an online platform and by organising dialogue forums. Unfortunately it is not that simple to measure impact - even website hits to not provide a good picture of how useful the information on the online platform is perceived to be. In our view, the number and quality of partnerships we have managed to build is a better sign of impact. In this respect the Hub is very successful - key government departments and multilateral organisations rely on the Hub for strategic input.

Other sources of information

The following websites have profiled the Hub's achievements:
- The German government's Partners for Review, in their newest publication: http://www.partners-for-review.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Tracking-P…
- The OECD: https://sdg-communicator.org/2018/05/04/sharing-sdg-knowledge-in-south-…
- The Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation: http://effectivecooperation.org/gpis/the-south-african-sdg-hub/

SDGS & Targets

Goal 15

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Goal 7

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Goal 9

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Goal 4

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Goal 8

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Goal 6

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Goal 2

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 10

Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 11

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Goal 5

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 16

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels